Bahai Religion

As the 20th century slipped into the 21st century, the world seems to have taken a nose dive. The world became grotesque to the point that as we speak, the greatest topic of the these modern days is mental health. The world being grotesque is making us grotesque.

There is a cry for mental health, because psychologically peopleare torn. This is called psychotic decompensation (mental breakdown).

It is interesting how Epictetus took Plato by the horns, and turned him around. Plato was or is the greatest philosopher. He will remain the greatest philosopher, that attribute of him being the greatest philosopher will never change because he is the man who gave as the notion of a university. He founded the first University in Athens some 387 BC and called it the Academy.

Plato taught that the environment that people are born in shapes and engrave their lives; therefore, all we need to do is improve people’s environment and they become good.

He wrote in The Republic, let us make good society, good society make good men and good men leads good lives.

Epictetus some 300 hundred years after was to turn around and said, there is no need to change society. What people needs is to harden their minds.

But there avenues where Epictetus joins with the great Plato. Plato held the belief that knowledge was not purely the result of inner reflection but instead, could be sought through observation and therefore, taught to others. It was based upon this belief that Plato founded his famous Academy.

Epictetus is the path to inner satisfaction and inner peace. It is the path to healing the psychologically wounded. Real healing comes from deep within. The twentieth century was the era of psychology and its arm of application psychotherapy. Here we are in the 21st century. After these years we have come to an understanding that no psychologist or psychiatrist has ever healed a mentally ill person.

What people need, what you need, is philosophy, that is sophiste, from the word sophia; wisdom. Epictetus is that wisdom you need. Epictetus is a path to life that was founded by Epictetus, the Greek philosopher who lived at the times of St Paul and St Peter, the men who wrote and compiled the Bible and spread Christianity across the world.

Epictetus was a raw dirty slave, and rose from being a raw dirty slave to become master adviser of leaders and masses of people. Epictetus has influenced many movements in history. In the 1950s, L. Ron Hubbard founded the Church of Scientology based on Epictetus. Epictetus tells us to harden our minds and thereby arrive at a state of peace. The Church of Scientology believes that our psychological make up is torn deep inside of us, and is full of what they call engrams. What we need is to release that psychological smoke within us and we will arrive at the state of clear. That is what is called dianetics.

In Dianetics, Hubbard explained that phenomena known as “engrams” (i.e. memories) were the cause of all psychological pain, which in turn harmed mental and physical health. He went on to claim that people could become “clear,” achieving an exquisite state of clarity and mental liberation, by exorcising their engrams.

On May 9, 1950, L. Ronald Hubbard (1911-1986) publishes Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. With this book, Hubbard introduced a branch of self-help psychology called Dianetics, which quickly caught fire and, over time, morphed into a belief system called Scientology.

The ancient wise teacher in the Bible tells us that there is nothing new in this world. Dianetics, the basis of the Church of Scientology, is ill disgested Epictetus. L. Ron Hubbard ill digested Epictetus and established the Church of Scientology.

What had come to us as Christian Science and Unity are basically brands of Epictetus.

As I have already said, one of the core teachings of Epictetus is to harden our minds. Based on that Epictetus concept, Charles Fillmore wrote a million dollar book called Atom Smashing Power of Mind.

The Great, gentle, petite woman, Mary Baker Eddy founded Christian Science along similar lines of Epictetus. Christian Science is a Christian sect or denomination that believes on mind over matter.

Mary Baker Eddy was born in 1821 and lived long to die in 1910. She was named one of the "100 Most Significant Americans of All Time" in 2014 by Smithsonian Magazine published by Smithsonian Institute. The Smithsonian Institute, or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". It was founded on August 10, 1846.

The institution's 30 million annual visitors are admitted without charge. Its annual budget is around $1.25 billion. This is how Epictetus worth.

“If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval,” Epictetus said, “realize that you have compromised your integrity. If you need a witness, be your own.”

The Christian Science Monitor (CSM), commonly known as The Monitor, is a nonprofit news organization that publishes daily articles in electronic format as well as a weekly print edition. It was founded in 1908 as a daily newspaper by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist

According to the organization's website, "the Monitor's global approach is reflected in how Mary Baker Eddy described its object as 'To injure no man, but to bless all mankind.' The aim is to embrace the human family, shedding light with the conviction that understanding the world's problems and possibilities moves us towards solutions."

A person must find a source of freedom and goodness within himself. This is an internal peace that comes with being in one with the cosmic order and with oneself. The wise man is free even if he is a slave as long as he can establish and retain his own internal freedom. If he is his own master, then he has no master. No other man can intimidate him. Passions, fears, greed, desires and so on cannot shake him. He does not feel the slings and arrows of the outrageous fortune. He learns not to worry about chance, or fate or fortune because he is more autonomous.

Of course you can see the glaring similarities with Epictetus.

Perceive the cosmic order and grasp the rulling wheel of the universe and you are free. Epictetus taught that you cannot ignore the world outside bacuse it is a reflection of the cosmic order. The wise man considers the relationship between the two. It is the wise man’s duty to restore and improve the order of the world around. To bring everyday life in line with the cosmic order. To advise political leaders who have power to act and so turn them into philosopher kings.

Epictetus said: you oh man, you are God’s principal work on earth. You are a distinct portion of the essence of God and you contain a certain part of him in yourself. Why then are you ignorant of your own birth. It is within yourself that you carry God and do not profane him by unclean thoughts or unclean actions.

Stoicism believed in the moral law of nature that governs all people. It had universal appeal and bound many people together.

That is the basis of the Bahai religion. The Bahai religion says that life is full of challenges; each of us is given a set of challenges and it is in mastering them that one becomes an adult; if one sits around wishing for other people to come do for one what one needs to do to survive one remains a child, forever.

Nature and nature’s God does not want people to remain children forever; it wants the child to grow up and take care of his needs.